U.S. stock futures rise on heavy data day

China manufacturing data upbeat, but Asia weighed by results

MADRID (MarketWatch)—U.S. stock futures edged higher on Thursday, as investors weighed up a barrage of data, including a decline in weekly jobless claims, with more to come including a survey of manufacturers.

“All in all, I don’t think the numbers were that negative, but they were not really enough to get the market moving and most of that is due to the fact many traders are still not able to function,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist, at Rockwell Global Capital.

Reopening on Wednesday after a two-day shutdown in the wake of devastating Hurricane Sandy, benchmark U.S. indexes posted their first monthly losses since May.

Economists polled by MarketWatch are forecasting the index to drop to 50.5% from 51.5% in September, pointing to expansion, but at a slower pace.

“We are expecting a two-point drop and that’s significant,” said Christian Tegllund Blaabjerg, chief economist at FIH Erhvervsbank. “It’s due to manufacturing and business not investing currently and not producing.”

But he also said that markets may be just a bit too nervous over ISM, as there are more important signs of life in the housing market, which came earlier this week from the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index. Read: City-by-city look at U.S. house prices.

Also at 10 a.m., the Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence for October will be released. It was originally due out Tuesday but delayed due to Sandy. Economists project it will rise to 73 in October from 70.3 in the prior month.

Construction spending for September will be released at the same time.

Investors will be paying attention to results from Exxon Mobil on Thursday.

Pfizer Inc.
PFE, -0.59%
posted a 14% drop in profit as sales of its former key cholesterol drug Lipitor fell sharply. The drug lost U.S. market exclusivity late last year. Shares fell 1.8% in premarket trading.

However, technology shares were under pressure across the board, with Panasonic Corp.
6752, -0.74%US:PC
slumping nearly 20% in reaction to grim results posted the prior day, while Sharp
SHCAY, -0.67%6753, +0.29%
also released downbeat results on Thursday.

“These are global consumer-related stocks. They were bad results and that is weighing on equity markets,” said FIH’s Blaabjerg.

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